


Up All Night

by psalmoflife



Category: Pitch Perfect (2012)
Genre: Brief Beca/Jesse, F/F, Get Together, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 16:38:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2475074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psalmoflife/pseuds/psalmoflife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beca's life is not at all what she thought it would be - and she can't decide if that's a bad thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up All Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cdybedahl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cdybedahl/gifts).



> Written for cdybedahl for femslashex 2014. I hope you enjoy!

Beca has become a cliche. 

It’s nearing midterms of her sophomore year of college, and she’s lounging in a 24-hour cafe just off campus because she’s been sexiled (again) (and why, _why_ did she think that rooming with Stacie was a good idea?). She’s still in her pajamas, because she’s at the Do Not Give A Fuck point in the semester already, and Cynthia Rose of all people has gotten her hooked on ridiculously flavored lattes, so she’s drinking a pumpkin-apple something with an extra shot of espresso. 

She wants to win another ICCA championship. She wants to produce music. She wants to move to LA. 

She really, _really_ , wants to pass this fucking midterm, in chemistry of all things. Beca does not care about chemistry. But she, for some reason, cares about her GPA. (Record label execs will not care about whether or not Beca passed chemistry, and yet here she is, studying her ass off. What the hell.) 

“I have become the epitome of a cliche,” she says to herself. 

“Well, as long as you’re aware of it,” a voice says over her shoulder, and she bites back a sigh, because her relationship with Jesse is the epitome of the epitome of a cliche. 

It’s been six months since she kissed him at the ICCAs, and she doesn't really know why she did it. She’d included the reference to _The Breakfast Club_ in their set to mend their friendship, but she’d had no intention of taking things further, and had been as shocked as everyone else to find herself wrapped in his arms after their performance. Having kissed him, she felt obligated to try the dating thing, and having tried the dating thing, the idea of breaking things off was just awkward. 

They sit in silence for a long moment before Beca can’t take it anymore. “I’m heading back,” she says, closing her laptop with a snap. 

“I’ll come with you-”

“No,” she cuts him off. “No, you stay here and finish your paper. I’ll see you later.” 

He tilts his face up to her for a kiss, but she slings her bag over her shoulder and brushes by him, pretending she doesn't see.

\---

She’s spent so long scheming about various ways to break up with Jesse that it shocks the hell out of her when he does it for her.

He uses politically correct phrases like “we've grown apart” and “want different things,” but what he’s really saying is “you’re not as invested in this as I am.” 

She makes the token protests, but what he’s saying is true, and they both know it.

\---

Stacie is, thank goodness, gone when Beca gets back to their room.

The tears finally come while she’s fumbling with the zipper on her right boot, tears of frustration, and anger, and she finds herself flopped back onto her bed and sobbing without quite knowing how she got there. 

When she stops she wants to put off getting up, knows that she’s got mascara running down her face, so she reaches for her bag and pulls out her phone.

_Are you coming to rehearsal tomorrow?_

She doesn't have to wait long for an answer. _yeah figured i’d stop by! xoxo_

Beca’s life may be a cliche, but Bellas rehearsal is always the high point of her day, and if it’s a rehearsal when Chloe makes the drive over from the neighboring city where she’s now going to grad school, well… maybe things won’t be so bad.

\---

She hasn't told anyone about the break-up, but the Bellas all know anyway.

She supposes that Jesse may have said something, or Stacie may have put two and two together after seeing Beca’s raccoon eyes the day before. 

Part of her is annoyed that her private life has somehow become so public, but a bigger part of her is glad that she doesn't have to explain. 

Everyone disperses quickly after rehearsal, chattering about their new arrangement of several Daft Punk hits and complaining about impending exams, but Chloe sticks around, helping Beca put the chairs away and clean off the whiteboard. 

“Are you okay?” Chloe asks suddenly. “I mean, obviously you’re not okay, but, you know. Will you be?” 

Beca shrugs. “I guess. I’d been trying to figure out how to break up with him for ages, but it was still a shock.” 

Chloe gives her a sympathetic smile. “You should come spend fall break with me. Get off campus for a little bit.”

Beca intends to say no, to point out all the work she has to do and the opportunity to DJ at the radio station, but finds herself saying yes.

\---

Living with Chloe is… easy.

Beca likes Stacie, and other than all the sex she’s not a bad roommate, but they have to work at things like establishing a cleaning schedule and sharing the closet. When Beca stays at Chloe’s apartment she folds effortlessly into the space, the two of them moving around each other in the kitchen and sharing pizza (ham, extra cheese, light sauce) while they watch _Gilmore Girls_ on Netflix. 

(She knows that watching _Gilmore Girls_ is increasing her cliche-ness, but when she’s with Chloe, she doesn't care. Not caring about her own perception of her life is the best part about staying with Chloe.) 

At the end of fall break Chloe says “we should do this again,” and Beca says “yeah.”

\---

Beca’s not quite sure how it happened, but she starts spending more weekends at Chloe’s than in her own room.

She rarely visits during the week, the half-hour drive a sufficient deterrent when she has class or work the next morning, but after she finishes her Friday shift at the radio station, she almost always drives to Chloe’s. Chloe has practicum hours on Friday afternoon, so Beca lets herself in (when did she get a key?) and spreads her books all over the living room floor. She’s a procrastinator by nature and still does much of her work at the eleventh hour, but on weekends that she’s at Chloe’s, she prefers to get everything out of the way.

\---

Beca’s not quite sure how it happened, but by the time the ICCAs roll around again, she and Chloe have slipped from friends to more-than-friends.

They never really talk about it, never make it Facebook Official, but it’s clearly a relationship all the same, filled with days walking through the snow and kisses over hot chocolate, nights spent stealing the blankets and learning their way around each other’s bodies.

Being with Chloe is easy for Beca in a way that she’s never experienced before.

\---

As it turns out, neither the Bellas or the Trebles win ICCAs that year - they lose to some school from Ohio that nobody’s ever heard of - but the groups throw a joint after party all the same, playing Rock Band with a handful of people rotating through the instruments and everyone else singing back-up.

(The groups singing together achieve a full, amazing sound that makes Beca want to suggest combining the groups, but she’s pretty sure that Aubrey would come back from Harvard Law and kill her. Plus, she likes hanging out with just her girls.) 

She and Chloe have become so used to being in each other’s space that it doesn't really register when Chloe comes up behind her and snakes her arms around Beca’s waist. 

“I’m still proud of you, you know?” she says into Beca’s ear. 

Beca knows she’s grinning like an idiot, but she can’t help it. “I know.” She tips her head back onto Chloe’s shoulder and gets a kiss for her trouble.

She’s forgotten that they’re in a room of friends who (technically) don’t know that this is a normal thing, but their reactions (Amy: “ _Yes_ , Donald owes me $20!” Stacie: “I knew it!” Jesse: a double thumbs up) make her laugh so hard that she gets the hiccups.

\---

The Bellas aren't graduating anyone this spring, so the aftermath of the ICCAs inevitably brings with it plans for the following year, talks of Rihanna and Billy Joel, Pitbull and Journey.

Chloe stays out of the song choice debates, says that her time is over and the group should decide, but she still spends hours on the couch with Beca as she mixes tracks together, bobbing her head to the beat as she highlights something in a textbook. 

They’re cautiously discussing moving in together, to an apartment halfway between their two campuses. They’re talking about getting a cat.

It’s disgustingly normal, a boring cliche- and it’s perfect.


End file.
